Does Fear Change Human Behavior?

It's a question, that has been nagging at you for quite some time, ever since someone pointed it out. Cognitive scientists often assume, that fear does not change human behavior. This dismissal is rooted in evolution. As one researcher puts it, fear is only fear if it has a biological function.

There are some very interesting studies about how fear effect human behavior. These studies open up a new dimension for how to live in a positive and loving way that is not based on control.

Feeling afraid can be scary and overwhelming. But I think it can also be a positive thing too. As humans, we respond to fear in a variety of ways, but when it comes to natural disasters or a terror attack, fear has been a consistent adversary for decades. And, for the most part, fear is a fear, that keeps us from trying new things.

I think we need to start looking at fear as something, that can be instructive for ourselves and for our children. What this means practically, is that we need to start challenging the cultural messages, that tell us to fear things.

It's not that people are inherently bad. Of course they aren't. We all just have a lot of social programming telling us to fear things. We need to start undoing this programming, whether it is conscious or not. When I think about this, I realize that some of us might have had a different experience with fear growing up.

Some people may have been spared the full brunt of the social programming, because they were not exposed to it. In a perfect world, we would all be given a choice, as to how we respond to fear. This would be a good start. A choice that we can decide is right or wrong for ourselves.

Fear Can Change Opinions And Decision Making

Fear can change opinions, it can change decisions and it can even change people. There's a difference between being afraid and feeling afraid. Feeling afraid is an emotion and, when I say that, I mean that it's only a feeling that comes and goes. Fear, on the other hand, is a response. A response that can become part of your nature.

You could be fearful all the time, and never actually be afraid. Or you could only be afraid when you are not in control. Fear is to simply react to danger without regard to the possible consequences. While fear can change opinions, it cannot change the nature of things.

Our minds can be very powerful things. But, they are also subject to programming. I think that we can all be made to fear something, if we are only exposed to it often enough. When it comes to decision making, fear can be a good thing. It can be a useful tool. Fear is like a spotlight shining in your face. It can blind you, but it can also help you make better decisions.

As humans, we are a collection of natural and learned responses. When the time comes to respond to a given situation, fear can either help or hinder you. When fear is part of your nature, you cannot think clearly. Your actions cannot be in line with your nature.

Cognitive Response To Fear

You have likely heard of a cognitive response to fear. It's the idea, that your mind can choose to turn fear into something positive. There are certainly researchers, who have made a career out of this very idea. With the advances in neuroscience, it's becoming more and more clear, that your mind is not a fixed thing. It is malleable. It can be shaped, like a muscle, through practice.

To understand what I mean by this, we need to analyze how your mind works under normal circumstances. You have a certain perspective on the world, which you call your default setting. It is what works well for you, when there is no need to think about anything and your environment is stable.

But, your environment is anything but stable. The world around you is bombarding your senses, all the time. It is the responsibility of the mind to choose how to categorize all of that input. It has to choose what to pay attention to, and what to ignore. You might call that filtering.

The mind doesn't just filter, however. It actively creates thought patterns, all the time. Patterns that anticipate what you might need, in terms of food, shelter, or safety. The patterns are there, ready to be called into play, when needed.

We tend to think of the brain as being a passive organ, but that is a completely inaccurate representation. The brain is anything but passive. It's the constant creation and maintenance of these patterns, that causes us to be so sharply aware of the world and to be able to navigate it so well.

The trouble is, however, that these thought patterns can lead to very flawed and problematic judgment. It's not just a question of being fearful, or being callous. The mind can choose to focus on anything at all and for that to be the only thing that matters. The mind can focus in on one tiny detail and draw a conclusion based on that.

It seems, in a way, a little bit like a scientific theory. The more you look at a phenomenon, the more you can see. You cannot look at anything with complete objectivity, however. There is always the possibility of seeing what you are looking for, even if that is not what you are seeing. For example, you might choose to see danger, where there is none. The trick is to see all of the little pieces of evidence, and to consider all of the possibilities, even the ones that seem unlikely.

How Fear Influences Human Behavior

Fear has an enormous effect on human behavior. There are few human emotions, that I can think of that have been subjected to as much study and most of what we know about fear has been learned through observation. The ability to observe our own and others' behavior has been a human trait since the beginning of time. The way that humans behave in any given situation is at least partly a result of that situation triggering the way that we think a situation should be handled.

This is why, when we are afraid, we tend to do the things that will make us feel better. When we are afraid, we want to do the things that will make us feel safe. But, fear does much more, than just make us feel unsafe. It causes us to behave in ways that are not desirable. Being afraid can make us lash out at others, often without even realizing. It can cause us to lose control over our own lives. It can make us behave in ways, that are reckless and downright stupid.

The list of such undesirable behaviors could go on for pages, but I will not go into that now. I think that it is important to be able to recognize what these undesirable behaviors are and to be able to recognize them in ourselves. That way, we can avoid doing these things, or we can at least do them in a way, that is less harmful. The unfortunate reality is, that this is often not possible. We can't always avoid doing these things and even, when we are able to avoid them, they tend not to make us feel any better. Often, we feel worse.

All of this being said, however, we can certainly choose how we react to fear. Or, more accurately, we can choose how we respond. The brain is a powerful thing. It can create all kinds of responses to all kinds of stimuli. Fear is just one of those stimuli.

Thank you for reading.